The top military commanders from India and China will hold another round of talks on 12 October to discuss and find out ways to resolve the standoff between the troops of the two nations at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the eastern Ladakh region. The discussion is going to be longer one this time also, said sources.
Sources told The Daily Guardian that Indian side is ready to insist on Beijing to give a definite time-line for “full disengagement at all friction points” during the discussion on 12 October.
“Indian delegation which will include an MEA official also will be stepping up pressure on Chinese officials to roll out a time-line for complete disengagement and deescalation on all the friction points,” said an official.
According to sources, NSA Ajit Doval will be keeping a close eye on this round of meeting, which will be the last one, as he is supposed to update the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the development.
The meeting which is scheduled to take place on 12 October will be involving 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen. Harinder Singh. This will be the seventh commanders’ meeting. Participants will include Lt Gen. PGK Menon and joint secretary (East Asia), Ministry of External Affairs, Naveen Srivastava.
According to sources, Indian diplomat has been asked to ensure that Chinese do not misinterpret any point included in the peace plan between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and China’s foreign minister Wang Yi early last month. There is an apprehension in the Indian diplomatic establishment that Chinese officials might try to shift focus from the five-point consensus reached between Indian and Chinese foreign ministers.
“They (Chinese) will not be allowed to divert the attention from the core agenda, which they have been doing in last few interactions,” an official said. The MEA’s JS as well as the army officials will reject China’s plan to push its 1 9 5 9 claim line as the Line of Actual Control between India and China. They will be putting out several facts and documents to counter China’s claim on that, sources said.
After China said last week that its 1959 claim-line was the LAC, the MEA had outright rejected Beijing’s assertions, saying that India has never accepted the “socalled” unilaterally defined 1959 LAC. “Chinese delegation might push 1959 claim line as the border between the two countries in Ladakh during the meeting,” an official said. “China must refrain from advancing an untenable and unilateral interpretation of the de facto border is the strong message that the MEA official will give to PLA brass,” the official said.
“That India had never accepted the so-called unilaterally defined 1959 LAC is the position reiterated umpteen times on all the forums of the word,” an official added.